A high school standout and a pair of underachievers

Easy A, Grade A-minus: The smartest and funniest look at high school life since John Hughes 1980s movies Sixteen Candles,Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Pretty in Pink.

Emma Stone, in a star-making performance, plays a smart and confident high school student who accidentally gets a reputation for being easy. She decides to enjoy the notoriety, but when people start getting hurt, she must reevaluate her decision.

As long as she keeps landing roles like this one, Stone is easily headed toward Hollywood's A list.

Salt, Grade C-minus: A CIA officer (Angelina Jolie) is accused of being a Russian spy.

Salt has all the ingredients to be an entertaining spy movie: double agents, Russian bad guys, a good-looking lead actress, tons of stunts. It's missing one important thing: spice. In fact, this spy story is bland.

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It's bad enough the action scenes look so familiar, but there are even moments when they look silly. In one scene, an escaping Salt takes over a police car by shooting the driver with a Taser. It's comical and distracts from what should have been the movie's big-action moment.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Grade C: Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) returns to his old financial ways after getting out of prison.

Director Oliver Stone's sequel to his 1987 release, Wall Street, is a plodding tale of financial trickery that wastes its best asset: a strong cast.

Had Stone invested more in the actors, his film would have had more life. Carey Mulligan has one of the most expressive faces in film, which makes her scenes with Douglas magical.

There are a few good moments, but most of the film is a convoluted mess pulled down by gimmicky filmmaking.

Also new on DVD:

Beautiful Kate: A man faces the haunting memories of an incestuous relationship when he returns to his home in the Australian Outback.

Caprica: Season 1.5: The Syfy Channel series looks at life before the events of Battlestar Galactica.

The Heavy: A man (Gary Stretch) learns he's the target of a hit when a crooked cop (Vinnie Jones) tries to kill him.

Stonehenge Apocalypse: The rocks hide the secret to an ancient force that could end the world.

Devil: One of the people stuck in an elevator is the devil.

The Films of Rita Hayworth: This set includes Gilda,Cover Girl,Salome, and Miss Sadie Thompson.

Step Up 3: A look at New York's street-dancing underground.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager: Volume 5: The ABC Family series about a young woman dealing with being a mother.

Gene Simmons Family Jewels: The Complete Season 4, Season 5: The KISS member and his family face another season of adventures.